The name game: morpho‐molecular species boundaries in the genus Psammocora (Cnidaria, Scleractinia)

摘要: The morphometric and molecular boundaries between twelve Psammocora (Cnidaria, Scleractinia) nominal species were addressed. type specimens of haimianaMilne Edwards & Haime, 1851, P. togianensisUmbgrove, 1940, foliumUmbgrove, 1939, digitataMilne Maeandroseris australiaeRousseau, 1854, samoensisHoffmeister, 1925, superficialisGardiner, 1898, profundacellaGardiner, nierstrasziVan der Horst, 1921, verrilliVaughan, 1907, albopictaBenzoni, 2006, analysed together with from museum collections, including those depicted in widely cited taxonomic descriptions, material collected for this study different parts the Indo-Pacific. Morphometric analyses dimensions skeletal structures allowed identification groups similar morphologies. Congruency these current whose synonymies descriptions found recent references was, hence, investigated revised. Finally, phylogenetic relationships a representative subset reconstructed based on rDNA COI, thus allowing direct link morphologic genetic information. Incongruence morphology literature was evidenced some recognised species. Based integrated approach, five unambiguously identified. © 2010 Linnean Society London, Zoological Journal Society, 2010, 160, 421–456.